Coventry University has warned that it must make nearly £100 million in cuts over the next two years and has criticised the impact of government immigration policy on overseas student recruitment, while Sheffield Hallam University will open a voluntary severance scheme to all 1,700 of its academic staff, as a funding crisis in English higher education begins to bite.
Coventry warned in its latest financial statements that lower than expected student numbers has contributed to a situation in which it will be about £85 million “adverse to budget” this year.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Hallam emailed staff on 12 December to tell them about a voluntary severance offer to all academic staff intended to address “financial challenges” being faced by the university and others across the sector, the Sheffield Tribune was the first to report.
An ongoing freeze in England’s tuition fee cap – which has remained at £9,250 since 2017 despite a period of high inflation – has brought real-terms cuts for universities’ teaching funding. Meanwhile, there are early signs of a fall in the international student recruitment on which universities have relied to cross-subsidise their falling domestic teaching funding, as government tightening of immigration policy hits – a combination that is causing great alarm among many sector leaders.
